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Phoenix sketches for a shield design

I've been deep in a pile of client projects so I barely get a chance to do anything more than a doodle for myself these days, and they're not really worth sharing, so here's something I did for work.

I'm making a design for a shield of a House in a college (yes they actually have those in UK for real! I thought it was just a Harry Potter thing). They loved my Phoenix illustration so they've asked me to do something similar.

Excuse me for the obnoxious copyright notice, but the last time I drew a phoenix it's been traced and ripped off in so many ways it's not even funny anymore (and I've managed to take down those I've found on stock vector sites).

Here are some quick shield mock-ups I sent the client along with the sketches:

Before that, I did some warm-up doodles with a brush pen, I kinda like them so here they are:

Each took about a minute, it's a wonder what you can do with a brush, sometimes I feel like it's drawing itself and I don't have anything to do with it. I might make some Photoshop brushes with some of these soon, hmm.

Dead sparrow

Yesterday our family cat brought a bird, and after he let it lying there I went to sketch it before burying it. It's not everyday that I get to draw a bird from up close.

Brush pen in a sketchbook.

Crucify study

It's been over a year since I last worked on some actual artwork that takes over a day to finish... so here it is! Except it's not finished artwork - just a study for a painting.

Model: my friend Jasna
Graphite and white pastel on 50x70cm toned paper. Took me around 6 and half hours over the course of a few days.

I'll begin working on a new acrylic painting tomorrow, and I decided to start with a detailed graphite study in actual size. I haven't done that before, I usually just make a loose sketch and gather references and try my best to do it right on canvas, but experience has shown I mess up proportions every time and it takes a ton of time to fix it. So now I've hopefully gotten things right on paper, so I can transfer it to canvas and speed up the painting process.
Not sure how the transferring is going to go though, I know how it works in theory, but I've never done it.

Update: Here is the finished painting!

My first horse sketch from life

Precisely what it says on the tin - yesterday I went for a walk and passed by a horse ranch, and I took a few minutes to sketch the horse, than colored it at home.

Pencil and watercolor in a Canson sketchbook.
He(?) really is that chubby :) in other note, I didn't do the hair color correctly, he had more whiter patches on the back but I was very quick and imprecise about it.

Weekend wanderings sketches

I haven't updated this blog in a long time, so here are some selected entries from various short trips I've taken in the past few weeks.

Orchid branch I painted at my parents' place during my Easter visit. Watercolor in a small Moleskine watercolor sketchbook.

View over the Kvarner bay from the hill Veli Vrh I sketched last weekend. Pencil and watercolor in a Canson sketchbook.

Apple tree in my friend's yard I sketched last weekend when I visited him. Pencil and watercolor in a Canson sketchbook.

If you're wondering what else I've been doing, you might want to check out my post on my other blog: Komfor band logo design process. There are a lot of sketches in that post as well.